1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for controlling information processing systems, information processing systems, and information processing programs.
2. Related Background Art
Disaster recovery systems for information processing systems are attracting attention. According to a known technology to realize a disaster recovery system, a copy of data stored in a storage apparatus installed at a primary site is also managed in a storage apparatus installed at a secondary site remotely located from the primary site (hereafter, this technology is referred to as a “remote copy”). In an information processing system in which the remote copy is applied, a storage apparatus that is set as a replication source is normally used as a primary system, and a storage apparatus that is set as a replication destination is normally used as a backup system.
In the meantime, there is a technology that is applicable to an information processing system including a plurality of grouped information processing apparatuses (computers) that are communicatively connected to one another, which can mutually take over operations to improve the availability of the information processing system in the event of disasters; this technology is known as “clustering.” Clustering may also be used, besides for the purpose of improving the availability of the information processing system, to distribute the processing load among a plurality of information processing apparatuses.
There is an information processing system that uses a clustering scheme on the side of information processing apparatuses, and a remote copy scheme on the side of storage apparatuses. In such an information processing system, when some failure occurs for example in one of the information processing apparatuses that is installed on a primary site and used as a primary system, the other information processing apparatus installed on a secondary site and used as a backup system would be used as a primary system. In such an instance, the relation between the storage apparatus that is set in the remote copy as a replication source and the storage apparatus that is set as a replication destination need to be changed.
However, in effect, the changing of the relation is conducted manually by an operator who becomes aware of the fact that a failover operation has been executed on the side of the information processing apparatuses. Although the application of the clustering scheme enables a swift and automatic recovery of the system at the time of failover on the side of the information processing apparatuses, the effect of clustering may be weakened as the change of the storage apparatuses needs to depend on manual operations.